UNCW announces 2018 men’s soccer schedule

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UNC Wilmington men’s soccer confirmed its schedule for the 2018 season on Wednesday, which includes five teams who qualified for the NCAA College Cup in 2017.

The Seahawks, who made the second round of last season’s College Cup, will host four of those five teams at UNCW Soccer Stadium and will play 10 home games throughout the regular season.

UNCW will begin it’s 2018 season in the College of Charleston tournament, which will see it square off against Stetson on Aug. 24 and West Virginia on Aug. 26. The Seahawks will then host Jacksonville in their regular season home opener on Aug. 30 before visiting Longwood for a Labor Day matinee – both will be rematches of the meetings that the Seahawks won last year.

“I am excited about our upcoming 2018 schedule,” said coach Aidan Heaney to UNCW Athletics. “We start off with two challenging out-of-region opponents in Stetson and West Virginia with four more non-conference opponents to follow before starting our CAA season at Northeastern on September 15.”

October will open with a three-game road trip which includes an Oct. 2 tilt with North Carolina. The Seahawks will be looking to avenge their 2-1 loss which eliminated them from last year’s NCAA Tournament. In addition, UNCW will visit Drexel and Elon on Oct. 6 and 10, respectively.

The Seahawks will then conclude the regular season with a five-game homestand, which features duels against local rivals NC State on Oct. 16 and Coastal Carolina on Oct. 24. UNCW will also host Belmont on Oct. 13, and respective matchups with Delaware and William & Mary on Oct. 20 and 27 will sandwich the Coastal Carolina game and finish the conference schedule.

“I think we should have a good sense of who we are as a team by that stage and be ready for the challenge of another tight CAA race,” said Heaney “Add in some ACC games at North Carolina and against NC State at home along with local rival Coastal Carolina and we have some important RPI games that may prove to be pivotal to our goal of returning to the NCAA tournament again this fall.”

Heaney also mentioned the balance of difficulty in the schedule and how he felt it would benefit his team in the long run.

“I feel the schedule has a nice balance to it with a couple of tough stretches that we will need to navigate. Our players and staff are very much looking forward to the challenge.”